Assassin’s Creed Shadows has launched on Mac, PC and consoles, and while we gave it something of a mixed grade in our review, I find it a lot more interesting as a Mac gamer than someone else might.
What’s notable from a Mac gamer’s perspective is not only that a genuinely AAA game has come to the Mac, but also that it has launched on Mac at the same time as Windows. That doesn’t happen very often, and Mac gamers are used to waiting years before a title makes it to their side of the divide.
This changed approach suggests that Apple’s plan to woo games developers is paying dividends. Now this momentum needs to continue.
After all, as we’ve written before, the problem with gaming on the Mac is not the hardware — it’s the lack of games. Our recent Mac Studio review shows that Apple’s kit can hold its own when it comes to gaming performance, but with so many titles taking years to land on Apple’s computers (if they arrive at all), there are often slim pickings for Apple fans.
That’s been improving in recent years, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the latest proof of that. But if we go back a year and look at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June 2024, we can see that there are still several big-name titles that are yet to be found on the Mac.
Big names on the Mac
Apple originally announced that Assassin’s Creed Shadows would be coming to Mac at WWDC 2024. But that wasn’t the only game that was teased during the event — in fact, there were many more. What about the other titles that were revealed at that time?
Well, three still haven’t made it to launch day, although Wuthering Waves is due out tomorrow, March 27. Other than that, the Mac port of RoboCop: Rogue City is still in development, according to its creators. Dead Island 2 was slated to launch in 2024 but is totally absent, with no clue as to when it might make an appearance.
The remaining ten games have all arrived on the Mac, and that includes Control: Ultimate Edition, which launched today. Palworld released on the Mac earlier in March, while Sniper Elite 4 came to Apple’s computers in January.
We saw Resident Evil 2 and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown in late 2024, while Frostpunk 2, World of Warcraft: The War Within, and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard appeared in the fall or summer. Riven and Valheim launched in June 2024, the same month as WWDC.
That’s not a terrible return, and with big-name titles like Assassin’s Creed, Control and Resident Evil all having made it to the Mac, there are plenty of excellent options for Mac gamers.
Waiting for Cyberpunk 2077
But despite all those launches, I’m still holding out for something even better: Cyberpunk 2077, which is reportedly coming later this year.
In fact, it’s probably very close to launch. Apple showed it running on a Mac Studio at its recent demo event, which suggests that it’s almost ready for go time. As well as that, eagle-eyed Redditors noticed that the game’s Steam package has been updated to support macOS, even though it’s not yet available for Mac on the Steam storefront. That all suggests it’ll get the green light sooner rather than later.
This could be a big win for Mac gamers, but it will be telling how well Cyberpunk performs on Apple silicon. According to testing down by tech YouTuber Quinn Nelson, Assassin’s Creed Shadows doesn’t perform well on the M4 MacBook Air, hitting an unacceptably low 23fps on average. While the game does better on an M3 Max chip — getting an average of 43fps — that chip is an awfully expensive way to get middling performance in your game.
We’ll have to hope that Cyberpunk is better optimized than Assassin’s Creed Shadows. It looked promising at Apple’s recent hardware demo, but that was on an expensive Mac Studio. That’s out of reach for many people.
Over to you, Apple
Apple promised a lot at WWDC in terms of the games that would be coming to the Mac, but this should only be seen as a starting point. Apple now needs to keep the releases coming into 2025 and beyond.
The company has great hardware that can (mostly) hold its own when it comes to gaming, in stark contrast to even just five years ago. But it needs to ensure that developers see it as an attractive destination for their efforts. We won’t be able to call Macs true gaming machines until they have both the hardware chops and gaming roster to lure players in.
The record from WWDC 2024 is fairly encouraging. Now, I’m looking forward to seeing what gets revealed at WWDC 2025. The ball is firmly in Apple’s court.